Table of Contents

Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS), 2007 (ICPSR 25262)

Principal Investigator(s):Hesse, Bradford, National Institutes of Health. National Cancer Institute; Moser, Richard, National Institutes of Health. National Cancer Institute

Summary:

The Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) collects nationally representative data about the American public's access to and use of cancer-related information. The 2007 HINTS survey is the third in an ongoing biannual series and provides information on the changing patterns, needs, and behavior in seeking and supplying cancer information and explores how cancer risks are perceived. Respondents were asked about the ways in which they obtained health information, their use of healt... (more info)

The Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) collects nationally representative data about the American public's access to and use of cancer-related information. The 2007 HINTS survey is the third in an ongoing biannual series and provides information on the changing patterns, needs, and behavior in seeking and supplying cancer information and explores how cancer risks are perceived. Respondents were asked about the ways in which they obtained health information, their use of health care services, their views about medical information and research, and their beliefs about cancer. A series of questions specifically addressed cervical cancer, colon cancer, and the Human Papillomavirus (HPV).
Information was also collected on physical and mental health status, diet, physical activity, sun exposure, history of cancer, tobacco use, and whether respondents had health insurance. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, education level, employment status, marital status, household income, number of people living in the household, ownership of residence, and whether respondents were born in the United States.

Universe:
The civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States aged 18 years and older.

Data Types:
survey data

Data Collection Notes:

The data available for download are not weighted and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis. Users who plan to do inferential statistical testing using the data should utilize a statistical program that can incorporate the replicate weights included in the dataset. Additional information about sampling, interviewing, sampling error, weighting, and the universe of each question may be found in the codebook.

This data collection utilized a split frame where approximately half of the sample completed the survey by telephone through random digit dial (RDD) and half completed it through the mail as a paper and pencil questionnaire. Users can analyse the data with only the RDD respondents, only the mail respondents, or both, as indicated by the variable SAMPFLAG. For each type of analysis, users will need to supply the proper final weight to get population estimates and replicate weights to calculate the correct variance.

Variable names containing more than 16 characters were truncated in order to be compatible with current statistical programs. Therefore, variable names may differ slightly from those in the original documentation.

The formats of the weight and replicate weight variables were adjusted to fit the width of the values present in these variables, and the variables REGION and DIVISION were converted from character to numeric.

ICPSR created a unique sequential record identifier variable named CASEID.

Methodology

Sample:
For the CATI data collection, the sample design was a list-assisted RDD sample and one adult in the household was sampled for the extended interview using an algorithm designed to minimize intrusiveness. The mail survey included a stratified sample selected from a list of addresses that oversampled for minorities. Sampled addresses were matched to a database of listed telephone numbers, with 50 percent of the cases successfully matched to a telephone number. Matches in which a telephone
number was both appended to an address-sample address and included in the RDD sample were deleted from the address sample. Please refer to the codebook documentation for more information on sample design.

Weight:
Every sampled adult who completed a questionnaire in HINTS 2007 received three full-sample weights and three sets of replicate-sample weights. Two of the three types of weights
correspond to the type of samples - the address-sample weight (MWGT0) and the RDD sample weight (RWGT0). The address-sample weight is missing for a case in the RDD sample and vice versa. The sample-specific weights are used to calculate estimates based on data from one of the two samples. The third type of weight is a composite weight (CWGT0) which is used to calculate estimates based on the data from both samples. Please refer to the codebook documentation for more information on weighting.

Response Rates:
The overall response rate for the RDD sample was 24.23 percent, while the overall response rate for the address-sample was 30.99 percent. Please refer to the codebook documentation for more information on response rates.

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: